Fight Another Day
by agdoll95
Summary: What if Hiccup left instead of going after Astrid that day and ran into his mother? Would he still be able to bring peace between them and the dragons?
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

"I want to know what's going on. No one just gets as good as you do, especially you." Astrid said stalking toward me. "Start talking, are you training with someone?"

"Training, no I uh…"

"It better not involve this." She said gripping my flight vest.

"I know this looks really bad, but you see…"

Astrid pulled me to the ground looking around the cove. I knew I had to get her out of there before she found Toothless.

"You're right, you're right. I'm through with the lies, I've been making outfits. So you've got me, it's time everyone knew, drag me back, go ahead. Here we go…" I said trying to get her to leave. But she suddenly bent my arm backwards pushing me down as I tried to not have my arm broken. "Why would you do that?"

"That's for the lies." She said kicking me down. "And that's…" she said bouncing the butt of her axe against my stomach. "…for everything else."

Toothless started to growl. "Oh man."

Suddenly Astrid pushed me down again screaming for me to get down and to run. Toothless bounded toward us ready to fight. Astrid raised her axe ready to swing. I pushed her and me to the ground throwing her axe as far away as I could, I then put myself between her and Toothless.

"No, no it's okay, it's okay, she's a friend." I said trying to calm him down. Toothless settled down, but still had a defensive look about him. "You just scared him." I said holding him back.

"I scared him? Who is him?" Astrid asked bewildered.

"Uh, Astrid, Toothless. Toothless, Astrid." I said introducing everyone, but not sure I liked the setting.

Astrid just looked at me in unbelief, shook her head and ran back toward the village.

"Astrid, wait you don't understand…" I said trying to go after her, but Toothless stopped me.

I looked into his eyes and I knew what he was thinking. It was no longer safe for us to stay on Berk. If anyone came for us, who knows what would happen. One thing was certain, if we stayed, they would kill Toothless. We couldn't stay, we had to leave and find a new home.

I climbed into the saddle and we took off. As we flew farther and farther away, I looked back at the island I had called home since I was born. It hurt to leave it all behind, especially my Dad, I didn't want to hurt him this way, but I couldn't stay anymore. If he found out about Toothless, there's no telling what he would do.

"I'm sorry Dad, but hopefully one day, if we ever do come back, things will be different. Hopefully, someday, you all will understand." I said rubbing a small tear from my eyes.

Toothless crooned looking up at me with sadness in his eyes. "It's okay bud, maybe one day we can make them all understand. Right now, all that matters is that you and I find a new home where we don't have to worry about being found." I said rubbing his head as we continued to fly over the ocean. "Don't worry Bud, I'm not going to let anything happen to you. I promise."

We flew on for a few hours and it started to get dark. I was starting to feel tired but Toothless just kept going. I laid back and was about to doze off when I heard Toothless start to growl again. I sat up and saw a person sailing through the clouds. I thought I was hallucinating, but Toothless saw it too, so it couldn't have been that.

"Okay, no sudden moves." I told him softly.

Suddenly, a large dragon flew out from the clouds below us with the person on his back. They circled and stopped in front of us as if they were sizing us up.

"Hold on, hold on." I told Toothless.

Out of nowhere, I felt claws grab me and pulled me out of the saddle as Toothless plummeted down. "Toothless!" I called for him.

I was carried farther and farther away, I had to get back to Toothless, but I wasn't going to able to free myself. My only hope was to make them go back for him.

"Hey, you left my dragon back there. He can't fly on his own, he'll drown." I called out to the person on the dragon in front of the one carrying me. But they just flew on like they didn't hear me.

We flew on towards a large island covered in ice and through one of the caverns. At one point I was let go and dropped in the middle of a whole horde of dragons, some of which I had never seen before.

"Hey, we have to head back for my dragon." I called out again.

The dragons started coming closer toward me. I wasn't sure what to do, but then I remembered all that I had learned from Toothless and just hoped that it would work on these guys.

I slowly reached out and gently scratched the chin of a dragon that had gotten too close, they then started to purr and backed off. Another dragon started coming toward me, I pulled out a tuft of dragon nip and held it out for them to take. They took it and started to settle down. I reached out to touch their snout when I saw the person from before sneak out and start walking in a circle around me.

"Who are you? Why did you bring me here? What do you want with me? Do you even understand what I am saying?" I said starting to feel frustrated that they still wouldn't answer me.

Instead, they swung their staff around and then two dragons flew in carrying something wet and exhausted. It was Toothless!

"Toothless!" I said running toward him. "It's okay Bud, it's okay. You really had me worried there." I said rubbing my sleeve on his head trying to dry him off as he started to sneeze.

The dragons surrounding us lit up the room holding fires in their mouths. The person started walking slowly toward us. Toothless curled around me and started to growl as is telling them to back off. They reached out their hand and made some weird motion which had some strange effect on Toothless 'cause he fell over to the side as if he were in a trance. They then started to reach toward me, but backed off.

From behind the mask came a woman's voice, but what surprised me is what they said. "Hiccup." They knew my name.

She pulled her mask off and just stared at me. "Could it be, after all these years? How is this possible?"

"Uh, should I, should I know you?" I asked nervously.

"No, you were only a babe." She breathed. "But a mother never forgets."

I was shocked, this woman was claiming to be my mother whom everyone had told me was dead. I wanted to shout and run, but she stopped me. "Come." She said running off.

Toothless and I followed her. "Hold on, wait just a minute."

"This way."

"Come back here."

"Come." She beckoned again

"You can't just say something like that and run off. You're my mother? I mean, what the? Do you grasp how insane it sounds?"

"Come, quickly." She said disappearing over a ledge.

"I have questions. Where have you been all this time? What have you been doing?" I asked trying to climb over a ledge and Toothless giving a nudge up. "They said you were dead. Everyone thinks you were eaten by…" I started but was left unable to finish my sentence by what I saw entering into a large cavern.

Dragons, dragons of every size shape and color. I couldn't believe my eyes, it was all so amazing. I walked a few paces forward and my attention was then turned upward to where the woman who was claiming to be my mother and her dragon were watching us.

"This is where you've been for fifteen years?" I asked finally finding my voice again. She nodded. "You've been rescuing them, unbelievable." I breathed.

"You're not upset?" she asked.

"What, no, I don't know. It's a lot to get my head around to be frank, it's not every day you find out your mother is some kind of crazy, feral, vigilante, dragon lady."

"Well, at least I'm not boring," she laughed getting down. "Right?"

"I suppose there is that, one specific thing."

"Do, do you like it?"

"I, I don't have the words."

Mom looked over at Toothless in awe. "Can I," I nodded. "Oh, he's beautiful. He might very well be the last of his kind, and look he's your age." She said pointing to the frills on his neck. "No wonder you get along so well. How did you manage?"

"I found him in the woods, he was shot down and wounded." I admitting feeling the guilt of it return after all these weeks.

Mom looked at me sullenly. "This Snapplefang lost his leg to an iron trap. This Raincutter had a wing sliced by razor netting and this poor Hobblegrunt was blinded by a tree snare and then left to die, alone and scared." It almost broke my heart hearing about what had happened to all these dragons she had rescued. Then she spied Toothless' tail. "And what of this, did dragon trappers do this too?"

I laughed nervously. "Yeah, crazy things is, I'm actually the one who shot him down." She looked at me confused. "Hey, it's okay though, I let him go, right Bud, we both did. Then I found him again and I was able to build him a new tail. Ta-da."

Toothless then swooped me onto his back and gave him a good scratch under the chin, just like he liked it.

"What did your father think of your Night Fury friend?"

"Well, we didn't stick around long enough to find out. We were found out by someone and they ran back to tell the village. I wanted to stop her, but Toothless knew as well as I did that it was no longer safe for us to stay. We had to leave. I have no doubt by now Dad has all but disowned me, but at least we're safe, and I guess in the end, that's what matters."

"I knew it." She muttered.

"What?"

"You're not the first one to befriend a dragon, son, but believe me when I say I tried as well, but people are not capable of change Hiccup. Some of us, were just born different.

"Berk was a land of kill or be killed, but I believed peace was possible. It was a very unpopular opinion. Then one night, a dragon broke into our house, finding you in the cradle. I rushed to protect you, but what I saw was proof of everything I believed.

"This wasn't a vicious beast, but an intelligent, gentle creature, whose soul reflected my own. But I was the only one to see it. Your father came to save us, but was only able to get to you. I was grabbed by Cloudjumper and carried off. You and your father nearly died that night, all because I couldn't kill a dragon."

"Yeah it runs in the family." I replied.

"It broke my heart to stay away, but I believed you'd be safer if I did."

"How did you survive?"

"Oh Cloudjumper never meant to harm me. He must have thought I belonged here, in the home of the Great Bewilderbeast, the alpha species, one of the few that still exist." Mom lead me to a cliff that overlooked a lake at the bottom of the cavern and in the water was a dragon so big I almost couldn't believe it, if I hadn't seen it, I probably wouldn't have. "Every nest has its queen, but this is the king of all dragons. With his icy breathe, this graceful giant built our nest, a safe haven for dragons everywhere."

I didn't know whether to be fascinated or worried, or both. But one question did finally come to mind when I found my voice again. "So, he's the one who has been sending all those dragons to invade Berk, this is the nest Dad has been looking for?"

"Of course not. The Alpha does not attack, not without cause. He protects us, we all live under his care and his command." Suddenly Mom pulled me down as a bunch of young dragons flew over us. "All but the babies of course, who listen to no one." She laughed lightly.

The Alpha moved over to where me and Mom were standing and looked right at me. I could feel my heart pounding as Mom went on talking.

"I've lived among them for fifteen years Hiccup, discovering their secrets."

The Alpha then let out a puff of icy mist that clung to my hair and clothes. Mom let out a small laugh.

"He likes you."

"Wow." I breathed wiping the icy out of my hair.

"You must be hungry."

"Yeah, I could eat."

"Good, it's feeding time." Mom said taking my hand and leading me out.

Toothless and Cloudjumper followed close behind. All I could think about was how I felt, and I was sure Toothless felt the same way, we had found our new home.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Mom, on Cloudjumper, led me and Toothless out of the caverns and over the ocean surrounding the nest. I looked back and saw all the dragons following us.

"Hey, I thought we were going to eat." I called after her.

"Oh we are." She said stopping in front of us and signaling for us to stop.

I looked down and saw the Alpha trapping a massive school of fish in his mouth, then blowing them all up into the sky for the dragons to catch. Toothless was getting excited, I told him to go ahead, eat. He dove and flew through the crowd so fast I was afraid I was going to be blown out of the saddle, but Toothless finally slowed down and I got a grip on the saddle again.

The rest of the day, Mom and I went on talking, just trying to catch up on all the years we had missed with each other. Mom started showing me all the things she had learned. We finished the day out with an easy flight around the island.

"When I'm up here, I don't even feel the cold, I just feel,"

"Free." I finished.

Mom and I looked at each other and shared a smile I thought I would never get the chance to with anyone.

"This is what it is to be a dragon Hiccup." She breathed.

Mom and I finally landed and just sat and talked while Toothless and Cloudjumper played in the snow. Finally Mom turned to me and started just brushing my hair, though she hesitated at first like she wasn't sure if she should touch me, but I wanted so badly for her to.

"All this time, you took after me." She said like she was about to cry. "And where was I? I'm so sorry Hiccup. Can we start over, will you give me another chance?"

I opened my mouth to reply, but I couldn't get my words to come out. Toothless sat down beside me and Mom got up.

"I can show everything I've learned these past fifteen years, like," she massaged the base of Toothless' neck and one by one, his back spikes began to open.

"Wow," I breathed.

"Now, he can make those tight turns."

Toothless ran around excited about what he had learned and now could do. "Did you know about this?" I asked him.

"Every dragon has its secrets and I'll show them all to you, we'll unlock every mystery, discover every last species together, as mother and son. This gift we share Hiccup, it bonds us." She said taking my shoulder facing me. "This is who you are son, who we are. We will change the world for all dragons, we will make it a better, safer place."

"Yeah, I mean, that sounds amazing." I said finally saying the words I had wanted to from the beginning.

Mom wrapped me in a hug and I, hesitantly, hugged her back. I almost felt like I was in a dream, and if I was, I didn't want it to end. Mom finally broke us apart when she said that it was getting late and that we should be heading back to the nest.

I didn't know whether to laugh or to cry. Today I woke up terrified about having to take my training exercise, even more so when I was chosen to kill the dragon. I left Berk on Toothless just looking for a place for us to call home and one day hopefully change everyone's mind about dragons. And now, I found my long lost mother, and a home where Toothless and I no longer had to live in secret or fear. We were finally free.

Toothless and I slept together by the fire in the cavern Mom had been calling home for the past fifteen years. I was still so excited from all that had happened that day I wasn't sure if I would be able to fall asleep, but I sat down next to Toothless and laid my head against his side and listened to his heart beat. Just listening to it made me feel calm and safe, it slowly began to lull me to sleep until finally I slipped into dreams.

 _"_ _The world wants peace, and we have the answer right here, just let me show you…" I was saying almost pleadingly. I could see that someone was in front of me but I could not see their face. But their voice sent a chill down my spine._

 _"_ _No, let me show you." They then started to shout like a wild animal and wave a spear over their head and another Bewilderbeast slowly stalked to us, this one, nothing like the Alpha. "No dragon can resist the Alpha's command, so he who controls the Alpha, controls them all." They said pointing their spear now at Toothless._

 _Toothless then began to cringe and groan as if he was in pain. "What's a matter Bud?" I asked feeling my heart begin to pound._

 _"_ _Witness true strength, strength of will over others." Toothless stopped moving and just stared straight forward as if in a trance. "In the face of it, you are nothing." They finished pointing at me._

 _Toothless looked at me and started to growl, just he had when we first met only this time, I did not see the fear I saw then. This time, there was the cold stare of a predator without fear. He was intent on killing. The Toothless I knew was gone._

 _"_ _Toothless, what are doing? Oh, no, no, no come on knock it off." I was pleading backing away slowly. "Stop! Snap out of it!" I was shouting now genuinely feeling fear, just like I did then when we first met._

 _Toothless continued to advance toward me all the while, I could hear him building a blast inside. I was backed into a wall of ice, I had nowhere to run, I was trapped._

 _"_ _Stop!" I shouted one more time._

 _Toothless let the blast loose, and then all I could see was white._

I woke with a start in a cold sweat. Toothless lifted his wing when he felt me move. I turned toward him and could see that it had all just been a dream. Toothless crooned and looked at me with concern written in his eyes. I was almost afraid to touch him, but all the same, I wrapped my arms around his neck and hugged him as tight as I could.

It had all just been a dream and that was all there was to it. There was nothing to be afraid. That's what I told myself. I settled back down at Toothless' side and listened to his heart beat again. I was still a little shaken from the nightmare I had just had, but I felt safer being with my dragon. I fell back to sleep and just hoped that things would be better in the morning.

I woke up to the sounds of the dragons panicking outside. Toothless was curled around me growling and Mom rapidly getting her armor on.

"Mom, what's going on?"

"I'll explain later. Right now, just stay in the nest and help the wounded dragons." Mom instructed me as she climbed on top of Cloudjumper and flew out.

I was still completely confused, and I wanted to help, but I could tell from the look in Toothless' eyes that it wouldn't be a good idea to go out there until Mom said it was safe. We flew out of our cavern and went about helping each wounded dragon that flew into the nest. After what seemed like hours, the Alpha and Mom came back and all the dragons came back and waited for the Alpha to finish looking them over. Once they were cleared, all the dragons went back to their hollows and Mom and I returned to our cavern.

When Mom was out of her armor, she looked worn and spent, but otherwise alright. When Toothless and I landed, she ran and grabbed me in a hug.

"Mom, what was all that about? What happened?" I asked returning it, feeling her shake as she held me tighter than she had earlier that day.

"Drago Bludvist has found our nest and was trying to break in and steal all the dragons."

"Drago, what-fist?'

"Drago Bludvist, he's the one we've been trying to save the dragons from for fifteen years Hiccup. He's a tyrant Hiccup, you must promise me that you will not go looking for him."

"But haven't you ever tried to just talk to him, why not just try and change his mind?"

"Because some minds won't be changed Hiccup, Drago will never change. There is nothing you can do to change him. Please son, promise me that you will not go looking for him." Mom pleaded.

"Alright, I promise." I said not sure what to do.

Changing peoples' mind about dragons was all I wanted to do, but if I can't then, what could I do? I found myself wondering if I had stayed on Berk, would I have been able to change Dad's mind about dragons? Or was I just a dreamer who was only thinking about himself and his dragon?

Toothless and I went back to bed and I found hard to fall back to sleep after our late night battle and knowing that it may have been impossible for us to bring peace between us and the dragons. If Mom tried and she couldn't, how could I?


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

(Three years later)

I was staring at my reflection in the water. I could barely even recognize myself, my hair had a grown a bit longer and I started developing a slight build I thought I never would be able to. Toothless was starting to look different too. His muscles were getting bigger and he was getting a few extra frills along his chin. I couldn't believe that it had already been three years since we left Berk and found Mom. So much had happened since then.

Mom was training me to be a dragon rescuer like she had been for the past eighteen years. She said she was starting to become impressed by how fast I was picking it up. I was starting to feel that she was right about the gift she had mentioned that first night we flew together and that maybe I would be able to do more to really bring peace to people and dragons somewhere down the road.

I was pulled from my thoughts when I heard Mom and Cloudjumper land behind us. Mom looked panicked.

"Mom, what's wrong?"

"Eret and his son are on their way to Drago with another shipment of dragons. If we're going to stop them we need to go now." She said handing me my helmet and running back to Cloudjumper.

I quickly jumped onto Toothless' back and we followed close behind Mom and Cloudjumper out of the nest and toward the ships carrying the dragons. The plan was the same as it had been since Mom started letting me help her on her rescues. Simple, yet risky. Mom kept the trappers busy and I free the dragons onboard.

This time it looked like Eret and Eret son of Eret were ready for us, but thankfully, Mom was able to keep their focus off of me and Toothless long enough for us to sneak aboard and free the dragons from the ships one by one. Everything was going fine until I got to the last ship. This one was different from the others and almost seemed familiar. As I was working with the locks on the cages, I noticed a flag with a crest that I knew all too well.

It was flag with the Berk crest on it. I tore the flag down and made short work of the locks. As the dragons were flying off, we were spotted by a guard on the ship. Toothless and I took off, but a net catapult went off and was heading right for us. Toothless and I dove to avoid it, but the net wrapped around me and pulled me out of the saddle and down to the freezing water below. I was drowning, but I kept fighting to get loose, but nothing was going to give. My vision started to go dark, the last thing I saw was Toothless swimming desperately to get to me and then everything went dark.

I woke up slowly. When I could finally open my eyes, I saw Toothless looking at me with relief in his eyes.

"Hey Toothless." He started to nose at me. "I'm happy to see you to Bud."

Toothless quickly ran and called out into the main cavern. Mom came running in a short time later.

"Oh, son. I was worried sick, I thought you were never going to wake up." Mom said hugging me tightly squeezing the air out of me.

"I'm fine Mom." I gasped trying to breath.

When Mom, finally let go, she told me that she had somewhere to go and that she would be back soon, and asked me to stay in bed and get some rest. I was suspicious about why she wouldn't want me out of bed. Once she was gone, I pulled the covers back and saw why.

Half of my left leg was missing. I could guess what had happened and from the look in Toothless' eyes, he felt so sorry for it.

"Hey, it's okay Bud." I reassured him rubbing his head. "You did what you had to do. Besides, in a way you kind of got me back for shooting you down and grounding you, right Bud." I laughed scratching him just under the chin.

He began to croon and grin. He helped me up and onto his back. We took a walk around the nest, but when the Alpha caught us out, he gave Toothless a look that even I could tell was him telling Toothless to take me back to bed. Rather grudgingly, we made our way back to the cave that served as our living quarters and he helped me back into bed.

A short time later Mom came back, and showed us why she had gone out, she had gone to gather material to make me a new leg. I offered to help but she told me no, that she could handle it. Toothless sat close to me while Mom spent a good few hours getting the leg built. After what seemed like forever she had managed to put together a leg that was a little rough, but otherwise functional. I could make a few tweaks. Once I was fit into my new leg, I got to work modifying Toothless' saddle. I had to replace the left stir-up and reattach the connecting cables.

After another few hours, we were able to go out and test the new saddle and my new leg. At first Toothless and I were a little nervous about whether or not this would work, but it held up when we took off and it seemed to hold pretty easy, like nothing had changed. Mom seemed pretty happy about it too. We flew on for a few more hours and it started to get dark. We flew back to the nest and settled down for the night. Toothless seemed pretty upset about what had happened, but I rubbed his head and told him it was alright.

"Look at it this way bud, now we're even." I laughed scratching him under the chin. Toothless crooned and wrapped himself around me and we both fell asleep.

The next morning, Toothless and I went out for some exercise, we had to get used to our new appendages. At first it was going great, we knew better than to stray too far from the nest, especially since we were not yet used to the new saddle and stir-up and I had yet to become used to my new leg. We were only out a few hours until I heard Mom calling to us from the cliffs surrounding the nest. Toothless and I landed and went back to the cave. Mom had gotten breakfast ready and was waiting for us.

While Toothless and Cloudjumper ate, Mom and I ate by the fire and just talked about how we could stop Eret from getting his hands on any more dragons. Suddenly it dawned on me what I had found the day before at our last rescue. I set down my plate and reached under my armor.

"Mom, there's something I need to show you." I said nervously.

"What is it son?" she asked showing the same nervousness I was feeling.

I pulled the flag out from out of my armor and showed the crest on it. Mom stared at it in disbelief. I knew how she felt, I couldn't believe it either. We both knew Dad hated dragons but we didn't know he hated them that much. Seeing the Berk crest on a transport to Drago to us was like being hit by a catapult. We weren't sure what to do now, but we did know what needed to be done. We had to go back to Berk and stop them.

For the next week Mom and I planned and trained, preparing for our less than ideal return to the island we had both called home for so long until now. I wasn't sure how to feel about this anymore. All I had ever wanted was to stop the fighting and to bring us together. But now that I saw that my father was working with Drago, I wasn't sure what I wanted anymore. The day of our escapade finally came and I felt this horrible knot in my stomach. Mom put her hand on my shoulder and told me that it would be alright.

I wanted to believe her, that after all this, everything would fine. But I couldn't shake the feeling that something was going to real wrong real fast. I finished strapping myself into my armor and then helped Toothless with the saddle. All the while, I couldn't stop my hands from shaking. Toothless looked at me with worry in his eyes.

"I know Bud, I'm worried too. But we have to do this." I said rubbing his head. "After this you and I will stay here with Mom, the Alpha and all the other dragons forever." I promised him.

Mom finally came and told me it was time to go. I said we would be there soon. Toothless and I looked at each other again and then we went out to meet her and Cloudjumper just off the cliffs overlooking the ocean. I nodded to Mom and we took off towards Berk. I flipped down my visor and Toothless and I followed her. All the time we had spent planning and training for this and I still couldn't shake the feeling that something was going to go wrong.

The hours we flew over the ocean slowly ticked by. The evening orange glow slowly turned to the dark violet then black night sky. All the stars across the sky helped me to relax a bit, and I could see why Toothless loved flying at night. It was beautiful, and no matter how many times I have seen it, it never gets old.

My relief was short lived when I heard Mom tell me that we were almost there. I looked straight ahead and saw the outline of the island I had once known so well. As we got closer however, we had to fly higher up in the sky to make sure we couldn't be seen, I saw that there had been some drastic differences made since I left. Where all the homes used to be, there was now only barracks. The watch towers were now guard towers. I looked over to the Great Hall and could no longer see the statues of the guardians that had been there for as long as this had been our home. The only house that was left standing was my Dad's. It almost made my heart sink to see how so much had changed since Toothless and I left, but I had to remind myself that we were here on a mission and there would time to think about my feelings later.

Mom gave me the signal to head for the docks. I nodded and she began to get everyone's attention. Toothless and I flew silently toward the docks and landed on the first ship we saw. The cages were filled to the brim with dragons. I slowly began to undo the locks, but then I heard a familiar voice from behind me.

"What do you think you're doing?" I turned around and saw Astrid.

She looked so different, three years had definitely been kind to her. But I had to stay focused, I pulled out my sword and gave Toothless the signal to start freeing the other dragons. I opened the blade and it burst into flames. Astrid looked bewildered for a second but then she quickly got a grip. She pulled out her axe and came right at me, but I was able to dodge. Just as it looked like she was going to try again, a Deadly Nadder swooped from out of nowhere and carried her off.

"Okay, that's going to be an issue." I muttered under my mask.

But there would be time to think about that later. Right now I still had cages to unlock. I helped Toothless get the locks undone and he signaled the other dragons to follow the ones that were flying back toward the nest. One ship after another we worked our way back toward the village and we were able to make it to the arena, or what was left of it, and free the dragons there. Finally, we went to help Mom. But just as we were flying over the village, Toothless was caught by a net and we landed just outside of the Great Hall. I stood and pulled the net off of Toothless as we were surrounded by Vikings. Toothless curled around me and I pulled out my sword. Suddenly I was struck from behind and I fell to the ground losing consciousness. The last thing I saw was Toothless standing over me and the both of us being surrounded by flames.

When I opened my eyes again, I was staring at the night sky and flying through the air. I sat up and saw that I was on Toothless' back and were flying back toward the nest.

"Hiccup, oh thank Thor." I heard Mom breathe through her mask as she and Cloudjumper flew closer.

"Oh, what hit me?" I said rubbing my head and winced when I felt the bump on the back of my head.

"You were struck from behind," Mom hesitated. "By your father." She finally finished with heavy pain in her voice.

"I guess I could kind of expect that." I said looking ahead. "But were we able to get all the dragons free?"

"Yes, they're all safe and on their way to the nest, we're not far behind."

I sighed with relief. At least for now, the dragons were safe. But Mom and both knew that it was only a matter of time before we would have to do this again. But like she said, we will cross that bridge when we come to it.

The rest of the flight home passed without any incident, until we got back and we heard someone in one of the other chambers. It was then that I remembered that we had another problem. Mom and I flew into the chamber that the sound was coming from and saw Astrid surrounded by all the dragons and she still holding her axe looking like she was ready to fight. Mom had one of the Terrible Terrors swoop in and swipe out of her hands. She then told me to get her out of here. I groaned but told her I would take care of it. Toothless and I flew in low and grabbed her, carrying her out of the nest.

The whole time we were flying, she just kept screaming and yelling at us to put her down. Finally we dropped her into a cavern not far from the nest and we landed a short distance away. We couldn't take her back, otherwise she would lead the others here to the nest. Not to mention we would have to deal with her screaming longer than either me or Toothless had patience to put up with.

I got off of Toothless and told him to stay back. I slowly began to walk toward Astrid but she pulled a knife out of me. Toothless began to growl but I signaled him telling him it was fine. I got closer but she backed further away.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." She warned.

Finally seeing that I was going to get nowhere like this, I knew there was no other option.

"I wouldn't either." I answered pulling off my helmet and looking up at her.

She stared at me in shock. "Hiccup?" she said dropping her knife and stepping a little closer.

"Yeah, it's me."

She just continued to stare at me like I was an illusion. Finally she swung and punched me in the arm.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"That's for kidnapping me."

"Okay, look I'm sorry but we did not plan on that Nadder bringing you here. In fact we didn't even plan on bringing anyone here for that matter." I tried to explain.

"Then why did it bring me here?"

"Please don't ask me because I really have no idea."

"Then can't you bring me home?"

"We would if we could, but you know where our nest is now and we can't let you tell the others. We need to protect the dragons."

"Hiccup has all this time away, following that rider made you lose your mind?" she ranted at me. "They've killed hundreds of us."

"And we've killed thousands of them, they defend themselves that's all."

"Then why do they keep attacking us? You've been letting these dragons attack our home."

"No Astrid, it's not them." I said defending the dragons. "I don't know why, but I do know that the dragons that live here wouldn't hurt anyone, not without cause."

"How do you know?"

"Because the Alpha won't allow it."

"The what?"

"The Alpha, the king of all dragons, he protects us and we live under his care and command. He wouldn't have us attack anyone without a reason."

"Then why were you and that other rider in the village? Why did you free all those dragons?" she asked unconvinced.

"Because we had to. We couldn't let you guys bring those innocent dragons to a tyrant like Drago Bludvist."

"How do you know about Drago Bludvist?" she asked as if she had expected me to not know that name.

"Who do you think we've been fighting these past few years? How could you guys work for him, do you have any idea what he's like?" I said catching myself in my own question.

I had never met he guy, but after seeing what he was capable of with his trapper henchmen, I couldn't say I would ever want to.

"It wasn't by choice Hiccup." Astrid confessed.

"What do you mean?" I asked in shock.

Astrid and I sat down on a block of ice not far from where we stood. Toothless sat down behind us.

"After you left, we all thought that you had been taken. After I ran back to tell the village about what you had been up to, I ran into the village just as the dragons attacked. By the time everything settled down, everyone was wondering where you were. I wanted to tell them, but I couldn't. Stoick had the whole village searching for you, but we couldn't find you and they all believed that you had been carried off.

"I guess I kind of knew what you had done after I ran off, but I just couldn't bring myself to tell Stoick what really happened. It hurt him enough to think that you had been killed by them, and if I were tell him the truth, it would have only hurt him even more.

"Not long after that, Berk was attacked by Drago's forces, and Drago himself. He showed no mercy to anyone who tried to face him. Drago offered your father a deal, one he could not refuse. We could work for him, or Berk and everyone on it would be destroyed. Your father took the deal only for the sake of the people. We had already lost so many of our own against him and his army, not to mention his secret weapon."

"What secret weapon?" I asked almost too afraid to know.

"I can't say, I never saw it. All I know is that whatever it was, Stoick knew we wouldn't stand a chance if Drago chose to use it."

"So, all this time, you've been working for him out of fear." I said looking at the ground.

"Yes. Given the choice I guess I would rather be here than there. He is not a good man to work for."

"No, no he's not." I said brushing my hair to the side. "Wait here, there's someone you need to tell this to."

"Where are you going?" She asked as I got on the saddle.

"I'll be back, just wait." I answered as Toothless and I flew back to the nest. "I must be out of my mind." I said to myself as we flew back to the nest.

Toothless and I flew back and found Mom, who wasn't too happy to hear that Astrid was still on the island, but we convinced her to come with us saying there was something that she needed to hear from her. Mom still wasn't happy about it, but she came and that was all we could ask for from her at this point.

She was still in her armor when we landed, not really trusting Astrid right now. Astrid it seemed had the same trust issues since as soon as she saw my Mom, she rushed and picked up her dagger again.

"Astrid, it's okay." I said turning to Mom and nodding telling her it was safe. Mom took off her helmet and slowly walked closer to us.

"Who is she?" Astrid asked lowering her weapon.

"Astrid, Mom. Mom, Astrid." I said introducing everyone.

Astrid just looked completely and utterly surprised. "That's you mother?"

"Well, now you know where I get my dramatic flair." I joked.

"Hiccup said you had something to tell me." Mom said sounding like she was getting impatient.

Astrid told Mom everything she had told me and Mom, it looked like, was having a tough time swallowing all this. I couldn't blame her, I could hardly believe it myself. But at least now everyone knew the truth. Although, Astrid was still having a hard time accepting the fact that dragons were not what everyone on Berk thought they were. Mom and I talked things over with her and we all came to the solution that she was going to have to learn and train to ride is she was to return home and if we were going to have any success at putting an end to this war.

Astrid wasn't too excited about our proposal, but we convinced her that if anything was going to get better, then one way or another, the people on Berk were going to have to know the truth. And on that note if she was going to get home, she was going to have to learn to ride. After getting to come to terms with that fact, she accepted our offer. Of course at this point the hard part was convincing Mom to let us take her back to the nest, but like Astrid, Mom eventually gave and gave me the responsibility to teach her. I didn't think I was going to be as good at it was she would be but, I could understand why I would be the better choice.

Astrid sat down in the saddle behind me and Toothless and I brought her back to the nest right behind Mom. Once we made it back to our hollow, we all settled down after a long night. Astrid slept by the fire pit while Toothless and I slept closer to Mom and Cloudjumper.

I had a hard time falling asleep that night, after the rescue, being shot down, having to convince Astrid about the dragons and Mom about what we were going to have to do to end this war. It had been a very long day and an even longer night. But I was able to close my eyes and relax just enough to doze for a while before I woke up to the sound of the early morning dragons flying out.

Mom and I stayed with Astrid and made breakfast, fish skewers. Astrid didn't seem too thrilled about it.

"It's not as bad as it looks." I said eating mine slowly. She took a bite and gagged. "It's still pretty bad though."

Mom laughed. "I'm a little out of practice."

"It's okay ma'am." Astrid answered suppressing another gag.

What we didn't eat we gave to Toothless and Cloudjumper whom seemed to enjoy it more than we did, which was a given. But afterwards, Astrid and I headed out to start her lessons.

"This should be fun." I muttered to myself as we approached the cove.

The dragon we had chosen to help her was the Nadder that had grabbed her. Astrid wasn't too crazy about working with her, but she could see no way out it.

"Stay calm, be gentle." I instructed her. "And you will know you have formed a bond when she bows her head to let you climb on her back."

At first she seemed kind of hesitant to approach her, but with some encouragement and a lot me telling her it was all about trust, she finally started to slowly make her way back toward her tail, speaking softly as she did.

Eventually the Nadder calmed down and allowed Astrid to work her way around back toward her tail and smooth her tail spikes down. The Nadder relaxed and Astrid moved forward slowly reaching out to touch her muzzle. As her hand made contact, the Nadder began to purr. Astrid began to relax as well, and I could see that her eyes were starting to open for the first time.

"She's beautiful." Astrid finally said glancing at me.

"Yes, yes she is." I said feeling a sense of hope that maybe everyone else on Berk could change as well. But first we had to complete Astrid's lessons. "Just remember, dragon training begin and ends with trust, both of yours."

"Yeah, I got that." Astrid smirked as the Nadder slowly bowed her head.

"Now, climb on." I told her.

Astrid again looked at me like I was crazy, but she climbed up onto the Nadder's back and rather awkwardly sat down.

"Now what?" she asked.

"Well, this is where the flight training comes in." I said climbing onto Toothless' saddle.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, flying?" she said stopping me.

"Yeah, the first flight seals the bond between you two." I said hooking in my harness.

"But,"

"It's going to be okay Astrid, trust me." I said looking at her. Astrid sighed and placed her hands on the crown spikes of the Nadder's head. "We'll start out nice and slowly, just give her a little nudge when you're ready to…"

I never got the chance to finish, because at that instant, the Nadder took off flying rather fast into the wind.

"Okay, that's going to be an issue." I said as I gave Toothless the signal to go and we took off after them.

Astrid was screaming rather loud given the fact the wind was working against her. But I was happier that she hadn't been blown off and fallen.

"I said nudge." I called after her.

"That was my nudge!" she screamed at me. "Just get me off of this thing!" she screamed again.

"Just tell her to slow down. You're doing okay, you just have to communicate with her." I called to her as they got farther and farther ahead.

All at once, they began to lose speed. Toothless and I pulled in close and I saw that Astrid was still there, holding on rather tight, but she looked like she was getting the hang of it now.

"See, that wasn't so hard was it?" I said wiping my head.

"Yeah, I guess." Astrid said relaxing her grip. "Wow, she's a fast flier, like a storm chaser." She said looking at the dragon she was riding. "That's it, that's what I'm going to call her, Stormfly."

"That sounds like a pretty cool name." I said getting the feeling that Astrid was warming up to dragons now. Maybe there was hope for the people of Berk after all.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Astrid's flying lessons with Stormfly went on for a few more hours but then it was almost time for us to head back to the nest. Just one problem, we had flown too close to Helheim's Gate and now the dragons were acting strange. Astrid and I tried talking to them, trying to get them to snap out of it, but they just kept going deeper and deeper into the fog. Suddenly we were surrounded by dozens even hundreds of wild dragons.

"What's going on?" Astrid asked as we crouched low on the dragons' backs.

"I don't know." I said looking around. "It looks like they're hauling in their kill." I said with my voice shaking.

"Uh, what does that make us?" Astrid asked nervously.

We tried to keep as quiet as possible in case any of the other dragons heard or saw us and tried to make a move for us. Suddenly, Toothless and Stormfly began to dodge in and around the sea stacks and then an island came into view. This island looked nothing like the nest, this nest it looked like was made from a volcano. Toothless and Stormfly followed the other dragons in and then we were led into the main chamber of the nest.

"What my Dad wouldn't give to find this." I whispered.

Toothless and Stormfly pulled up and we hid behind a stone pillar overlooking the pit filled with red smoke. As we watched, we saw the dragons one by one dropping the food they had brought with them down into the pit.

"Well it's satisfying to know that all of our food has been dumped down a hole." Astrid muttered.

"They're not eating any of it." I observed.

At that moment, a Gronckle came flying in slowly. It opened its mouth and dropped a small fish into the pit. Suddenly there was a loud roar from the pit. From out of the red smoke, an enormous head shot out and closed its jaws around the Gronckle, swallowing him like he was nothing. Astrid and I couldn't believe what we had just seen.

"What is that?" she asked her voice shaking.

I didn't have the words to say. We tried to stay hidden, but then the monster made a move for us and Toothless and Stormfly flew as fast as they could getting us out of there. We flew out of that nest as fast as the dragons could carry us and we made our way out of the fog and back towards the nest.

"Now it totally makes sense, it's like a giant beehive." Astrid said summing things up as we landed just outside the nest. "They're the workers and that's their queen. It controls them."

"But, the Alpha is the only…"

"Apparently not." Astrid said cutting me off.

"We need to tell my Mom." I said running inside.

"And do what?" Astrid asked racing after me.

"We need to help those dragons, we can't just let them be controlled by that beast and killed by others because they have no other choice." I said as we made our way toward our hollow.

We found Mom in the main cavern overlooking the dragons as they flew around as happy and free as they should be. Mom asked us what was the matter and when we told her everything that had happened, she looked like she had just seen Odin's ghost.

"Mom, I know this is hard to believe, but we need to help those dragons." I pressed.

"And we will." She said placing her hand on my shoulder. "I have a plan."

Mom and spent the next few hours planning out our rescue and our return to Berk. Astrid wasn't sure about all this and to be honest, neither was I but, Astrid was right. Unless we did something to stop all this, nothing was going to get better, it wasn't. We had to save the dragons on Dragon Island and we couldn't do that without the people on Berk's help. We had to make them understand that dragons were not what they thought they were. We had to go back. Mom told us how everything was going to work out and reassured us that it was going to be alright.

For the next two days we prepared for the fight of our lives. The night before we were to head for Berk, I couldn't sleep. I went out to the cliffs overlooking the beach just outside the nest. I sat down and Toothless laid down behind me and curled around me.

"I just don't know Bud." I said rubbing his head. "What this doesn't work, what if my Dad doesn't listen and we can't save those dragons on Dragon Island" I asked out loud.

"It will work son." I heard from behind me.

I turned around and saw Mom standing by the entrance.

"Did I wake you up?" I asked.

"No, I was awake anyway." She said sitting next to me. "Something on your mind son?" she asked rubbing my shoulder.

"I'm just, What if something goes wrong and we can't get everyone to understand or we can't save those dragons?"

"It's all going to work out son." She said brushing my hair to the side. "But I get the feeling that it's not the dragons you're worried about."

She caught me. "It's just, all my life, all I ever wanted was for my Dad to be proud of me, and when I finally had it, it wasn't for the reason I wanted it to be. And now, what's he going to think of me when we go back and he sees that the one who has been hindering his efforts with Drago has been you and me?"

"Hiccup, your father has always been someone who did what he thought was right for the people. But he was never willing to let you go."

"Really?" I asked still not feeling convinced.

"Yes, your father has always loved you son, but he has also been the most stubborn one, which is where I think you get yours from." She laughed. I couldn't help but laugh back. "Yes, he wouldn't give up son. Believe me, I know. You should have seen him when he was first trying to court me, I thought that there was no way he and I would end up together.

"But he never gave up on trying. And I just knew that if he was willing to keep on trying even when I told him no, then he and I must have really been meant to be together. At last I could looked past the traits of him I wished I could change and fell in love with the ones I knew I wouldn't."

I found it hard to believe, but Mom kept going. "The point is son, your father may not be the easiest person to change, but after seeing what you were able to do with the Hofferson girl, I can see the hope that there is a chance for your father as well, and all of Berk." Mom took my hand and I held it back. "We can do this son, and we will bring an end to this war and we will finally bring peace to us and the dragons."

I nodded, "Thanks Mom." I said hugging her.

After a while longer we went inside and we went to sleep. I was still nervous about everything, but Mom was right, it would work, it had to.

The next morning, Astrid and I ran through her drills one more time and Mom got everyone ready. Finally we all met outside the nest and the Alpha led the nest out towards Helheim's Gate and Mom, Astrid and I headed for Berk.

The first few hours of the flight went along fine without incident, but I could still feel my heart pounding. Toothless, sensing my distress crooned, looking up at me.

"It's okay Bud, I'm just nervous, that's all." I said rubbing his head. "It's going to be okay Bud, don't worry, I'm going to let anything happen to you, I promise."

The orange haze of evening finally turned to dark blue then finally black of night. For another few hours, we flew on. And then Astrid said she could see Berk coming into view. Mom and I glanced at each other and put our helmets on. Taking a deep breath, I flipped down my visor and readied for whatever would come in the next few minutes. We flew in close so that we would be seen, and we listened as the warning signal was blown and watched as everyone rushed out ready for a fight.

We landed in the center of town and then we were surrounded by angry Vikings, the dragons curled around us protectively. Astrid got everyone's attention bringing them to a stop, if only for a minute. She stepped out of Stormfly's protective curl where everyone could see that she was alright. Her parents ran to meet her and hugged her asking if she was okay.

"I'm fine, thanks to Stormfly." She said turning toward her dragon.

"The dragon, the dragon brought you here?" her mother asked looking up in disbelief.

"Yes, they saved me." Astrid answered walking back and rubbing Stormfly's neck to calm her down.

"How, how were you able to…" her father asked not being able to finish question.

"What is going on here?" I heard my Dad ask rather alertly as he made his way through the crowd.

Seeing us, he readied for a fight, but Astrid stopped him. "Sir, wait, they're friends." She said stepping between him and us.

"What?"

Astrid turned to me and gave me a nod, telling me it was time. Slowly, I pulled off my helmet and showed myself to everyone. Dad's expression changed rather quickly but he did make another move.

"Hey Dad." That was all I could say. Anything else I could think of just wouldn't come out. At last Dad starting walking toward me and Toothless began to growl. "It's okay Bud, it's okay." I said signaling him to settle down. "I know that this probably wasn't what you thought you'd be dealing with tonight, but… I'm sorry, I know I never should have left and I should have told you what was going on, but I just didn't know how to…" I said losing my words again. "You can take this out on me, be mad at me, but please we need you to just listen for a…" I never got to finish what I was saying.

Dad just grabbed me and hugged me like he was afraid that if he let go I was going to disappear like a dream. "You have no idea how happy I am to see you alive." He said like he was on the verge of tears.

Everyone around us just stood in shock, myself included. This certainly not how I thought he was going to react. But to be honest, I was happy that this was it. But rarely had any one seen my Dad like this, I didn't even know how to answer that. All I could do was hug him back. "I missed you son."

"I missed you too Dad." When he finally let go, I knew it was Mom's turn. "Dad, there's something else you need to know."

I turned to her and nodded, Mom took off her helmet and showed herself as well. Dad's eyes grew and he dropped his sword and took off his helmet.

"I know what you're going to say Stoick. How could I have done this? Stayed away all these years and why didn't I come back to you, to our son?" She said with her voice shaking. "Well what sign did I have that you could change Stoick, that anyone on Berk could? I pleaded so many times for you to stop the fighting to find another answer but did any of you listen?" Dad started walking closer. "I know I left you to raise Hiccup alone, but I thought he'd be better off without me, and I was wrong, I see that now." Dad cornered her against Cloudjumper. "Stop being so stoic Stoick, go on, shout, scream, say something."

Finally Dad opened his mouth to talk. "You're as beautiful as the day I lost you." Was all he could say.

Toothless, Astrid and I looked at each other and sighed in relief. Looks like the hardest part here was over, but there was still more to come.

"Why not ask the traitors why the dragons continue to attack us?" a rather grouchy voice came out from among the crowd. "Or for that matter why they've been helping them?" It was Mildew, the cranky old goat that lived on the other side of the island.

"We're not traitors Mildew, and the dragons are not what we think they are." Astrid said defending us.

"Is that right?" He sneered.

"Yes, it is." I said standing by her. "That's the whole reason we came back tonight, to show you, all of you. To help you understand that, so we could bring an end to this war."

"What he says is true." Mom said putting her hand on Dad's shoulder. "We know why the dragons attack, and we know how to stop it. But we can't do it without the help of the people on Berk."

"And why should we help you or these beasts?" Mildew shouted. "What good have they done for us?" he asked turning to the crowd. Everyone seemed to be swayed to his opinions.

"Because if any of us want to bring this to an end, we have no other choice." I spoke up. "They're not what we think are, we don't have to kill them. There is another way, but we first have to bring this war to an end. And the only way we can do that is together."

"He's right." Astrid said standing with me. "Unless we work together to help them, nothing is going to get better. And I don't know about all of you, but I would like nothing more than to see this brought to an end once and for all."

"Stoick." Mom asked turning to Dad.

Dad didn't say anything, not that he even got the chance to because at that moment, a Deadly Nadder came and was flying rather irradically and finally crashed in the middle of town. Mom and I ran for it and saw the claw and burn marks on it. Mom looked at me and we both knew it was time.

"Dad, we can take you all to the dragon's nest, and we can stop this, but we need your help."

Dad finally put his hand on my shoulder. "Lead the way son." He said with a proud grin. "Ready the ships." He ordered.

Everyone ran about getting their armor, weapons, anything they thought they were going to need. Astrid wanted to come but I told her to stay.

"Mom is going to need help keeping the village safe in case Drago or anyone comes and tries to take the dragons." I explained as I readied for the flight.

"But Hiccup,"

"Astrid please, I'm asking you to stay here and protect Berk. Please, if not for me, then do it for Stormfly and for the people here." Astrid finally agreed. "And Astrid, if something goes wrong, just make sure Drago never finds Toothless."

"I will, just promise me it won't go wrong." She pleaded with me.

Before I could answer, Dad called and said the fleet was ready. I waved good-bye and I thought I could hear her say 'go' as we flew to the front of the fleet to guide them to the nest.

Toothless and I took it slow as to not lose the fleet too far behind us. The time it took us to get to Helheim's Gate seemed to take forever and the more I thought about the fight ahead of us, the harder my heart began to pound until it was at the point that I thought it was going to burst from my chest. Finally the fogs came into view and Toothless and I landed on Dad's ship at the front. Toothless was being pulled by the call again, but I stayed with him to keep him from going too far gone. He guided us to the nest and when we got here, it was chaos.

The Alpha was battling the Red Death, and we could see he was losing strength. He was badly burned and wounded. I looked at Toothless and we both knew what we had to do.

"Dad, you and the others get the other dragons out of here, Toothless and I will keep the Red Death busy." I said putting on my helmet.

"Hiccup," Dad said taking my hand. "I'm sorry for, for everything."

"Yeah, me too."

"You don't have to go up there." He said with worry in his voice.

"We're Vikings, it's an occupational hazard." I said grinning under my helmet.

"I'm proud to call you my son." He said grasping my hand tighter in his.

"Thanks Dad." I gave Toothless the signal to go and we took off toward the battle.

We rose up into the sky and dove toward the Red Death. Toothless let loose a plasma blast and got the Red Death's attention and he began to fire toward us. I then noticed something.

"That thing has wings." I thought out loud. "Okay, let's see if it can use them."

We dove again and fired one more blast. This time I looked behind us and saw an angry giant not far behind.

"Well he can fly." We led around the island far from the others, but we still needed to stop him. I looked up and saw dark clouds, I had an idea. "Okay Toothless, time to disappear." We pulled up into the clouds and thankfully he lost sight of us.

One by one, we fired aiming for the wings and getting him angrier, until at last he lit up the sky with fire and we came to close to being roasted ourselves, but we didn't completely clear the flames.

"Okay, times up," I said looking back and seeing Toothless' tail singing burning away. "Let's see if this works." One more dive. "Come on, is that the best you can do?" I taunted.

The Red Death followed us back through the clouds. I could feel Toothless getting more and more anxious. "Stay with me Buddy we're good, just a little bit longer." I listened for the sound I was waiting for. "Hold Toothless," there it was. "Now!" I signaled.

Toothless turned and fired a one more blast into the Red Death's mouth which was filled the gas for his fire. Only now, it was burning him from the inside out and we were heading straight for the ground. He tried to open his wings to stop himself, but the damage from Toothless' fire blasts was tearing his wings, he couldn't escape the fall. He collided with the ground and went up in a mountain of flames. We weren't completely out of the woods yet ourselves. We still had to keep flying up to avoid the flames, but Toothless' tail was gone, we couldn't fly. To make matters worse, the tail was heading straight for us.

"No, no!" I cried as we collided with it.

I was knocked out of the saddle and heading straight for the flames below us. I saw Toothless flip around and start diving straight for me. We reached and he was able to get a hold of and wrap me in his wings. I was safe from the flames, but the impact of the ground was not too kind for either of us, thankfully, we weren't too badly hurt. Maybe beaten, battered and bruised, but we were still alive. When we finally came to a stop, I could feel Toothless breathing hard like he was in pain. I tried to move but he wouldn't let me go. I guess he was still worried about me, or he was too hurt to move. I could still hear everyone else outside. I listened as Dad was calling for me.

"Oh son," I heard him moan. "I did this."

He thought I was dead. I tried to move, I wanted to let him know that I was alright, but Toothless still wouldn't let me go. I could hear him crooning as if he was trying to talk to my Dad, like he was testing him.

"Oh son, I'm so sorry." I heard Dad say as if he were almost crying.

Finally Toothless opened his wings and relaxed his hold on me. I sat up and looked up my father.

"Hey Dad." Was all I could say.

Dad pulled me into a crushing hug. "He's alive, you brought back alive." He said trying not to cry.

I could hear everyone cheering in the back ground, Viking and dragon like was calling and cheering. I heard the Alpha call out in happiness. Dad and I looked at Toothless. Dad laid his hand on Toothless and Toothless relaxed his head. He was exhausted.

"Thank you for saving my son."

Toothless then grinned and closed his eyes. The Alpha called all the other dragons' attention and they began to fly off. Some stayed behind and guided the ships back out of the fog. Dad and I stayed close to Toothless as he was resting on the ship. When we got back to Berk, several men helped us get him up toward the Great Hall where he could rest for now. Once he was safe, Dad and I sat down started to relax ourselves.

"Well this has turned out to be one crazy reunion, huh?" I laughed.

"But I wouldn't have had any other way." Dad said putting his hand on my shoulder.

"Dad, there is something I need to ask you." I said remembering what had been on my mind for the past several weeks.

"What is it son?"

"Mom and I know Drago was here, Astrid told us." I confessed. "But what I want to know, is what happened."

"Son, the story of Drago Bludvist goes back farther than you think." Dad answered gravely.

"I can keep up."

Dad sighed. "Years ago, there was a great gathering of chieftains to discuss the dragon scourge we all faced. Into our midst came a stranger from a strange land, covered in scars and draped in a cloak of dragon skin. He carried no weapon and spoke softly.

"He claimed that he, Drago Bludvist, was a man of the people. Devoted to freeing man-kind from the tyranny of dragons. He claimed that he alone could control the dragons and that he alone could keep us safe if, we chose to bow down and follow him." I tried to stifle a laugh. "Aye, we laughed too. Until he wrapped himself in his cloak and cried out, 'Then see how well you do without me.' The roof suddenly burst into flames and from it, armored dragons descended, burning the hall to the ground. I was the only one to escape."

I felt my heart stop. Drago was worse than I thought, I still hadn't met him yet, and I wasn't sure I wanted to. And yet, part of me still wanted to find him and change his mind. But I had to remember my promise to Mom and all that I dealt with, with her for the past two years. If Drago was as dark as they say he was, then what chance did I have to stop him?

"Well what happened when he came here? What made you want to follow him this time?" I asked.

"Son, you have no idea how lucky you are that you left when you did. Shortly after you disappeared, we were attacked and invaded by Drago's forces. We held them back as long as we could, but Drago wasn't done. He had a secret weapon, I fear that not even you or Toothless could stop."

"What was it Dad?" I pressed.

"It was…" Dad never got to finish, because from outside, we could hear the people panicking.

We ran outside and saw everyone running from the Alpha as the dragons swarmed around landing all around the village. Mom and Astrid were running around trying to get everyone to calm down, but nobody was listening. Dad called out, getting everyone's attention.

"Everyone calm down!" He roared above the shouts of the people. Finally everyone stopped screaming and yelling and turned to face us. "Thank you, now son, if you would care to explain."

"Great, so everyone. I know this must be a little strange for you to know, but this is the Alpha. I promise, he won't hurt you."

Everyone looked at me like I was crazy. Thankfully Mom and Astrid were right there to back me up.

"It's true, he protects us. The Alpha is the one that controls the dragons, he's the one who's going to help us." Astrid said standing next to me.

"I'm sure everyone here finds that hard to believe after that beast that Drago brought with him." Mildew spoke up.

"What is he talking about?" I asked turning to Dad.

"Son, the secret weapon that Drago had that made it possible for him to take control of Berk was a dragon, just like the Alpha that you and your mother brought with you." Dad finally confessed.

Mom and I stared at each other in disbelief, there was another Bewilderbeast? One that was under Drago's control? That could be a problem.

"People, we can assure you that the Alpha means no harm, he's only here to bring the other dragons back to the nest where they will be safe." Mom called out trying to ease everyone's fears.

"Them, what about us?" Mildew cried out. "If we don't have any dragons to give to Drago Bludvist, he will destroy this island and everyone on it."

Everyone began to agree with Mildew, but Dad was able to get them calm down and hear us out.

"That's why we will be going with them." Mom said.

We had planned on this from the start. Our plan was to get everyone off of Berk and bring them to Dragon Island where they and the dragons would be safe until we could stop Drago and put an end to his tyranny. But for it to work, we had to get everyone to see that dragons were not what we thought they were.

Everyone looked at us shock, they had never heard of such an idea in they're lives. Even Dad was surprised at Mom's idea of leaving Berk.

"Stoick, I know that this is not what you would want to hear, but if we are going to bring this to an end, we need to keep the people and the dragons safe from Drago." Mom said turning to Dad.

"She's right Dad. We can stop Drago, but if he already knows where we live then we need somewhere we can regroup if things go wrong. And right now the only safe place is Dragon Island, Drago already has found the Alpha's nest and he knows where we are." I explained backing Mom up.

Dad just looked out over the people for a bit, finally he gave a sigh. "When do we leave?" he asked turning to us.

Everyone started talking again like they didn't want to leave. Dad once again got them to calm down.

"They're right, I know this not something we would normally do, but for the sake of us, we need to leave until the battle with Drago comes to an end." Dad announced. "Gather everything you can and prepare to depart. We're leaving by sunset tomorrow."

The people began to go home, or what had been they're homes for the past few years, and gathered all that they could and packed all onto the ships. Mom and spent a good portion of time helping everyone learn how to ride dragons. The ships would have to carry all our supplies, but there wasn't room for the people to ride too. So the only way they were going to go was on dragon back. Some were more accepting then others, and it was pretty tough getting them to understand the concept of trust, but one by one, everyone was able to at least stay on while in flight. Gobber and I then had to hurry and have make-shift saddles for everyone until we could get real ones made once we made it to Dragon Island. When I was with Gobber, Astrid helped Mom with all those that were still having trouble getting the hang of riding on a dragon. Many riders only had rope to help them hold on, and some nothing at all, so they were going to have to be a little more careful.

By sunset, everyone was on a dragon and though some had a shaky start, they were at least able to hang on. The ships were filled with supplies and all that the people had. Mom and I flew up to the front and the Alpha signaled the dragons to follow us. He disappeared into the water and the dragons followed him and us all the way to Helheim's Gate. It was a little more slow going this time through the fog, but finally we reached Dragon Island and one by one, we began to set up camps all around the island.

Vikings and dragons alike worked together to get everyone settled into our new home. Looking around, Dragon Island wasn't a bad place to call home. There were places for the dragons to live as well as the people, and the fogs kept us hidden from anyone who would come looking for us. As a measure of extra safety, the Alpha put up ice bergs surrounding the island as well as the sea stacks. Dad and I stood at the entrance of the cave overlooking the place where many were now working to build a port for all the ships to be.

"You know son, if Drago can't be stopped, this wouldn't be such a bad place to call home." Dad said as if he had read my thoughts.

"Yeah, I just hope that we are able to bring this to an end." I said sullenly. "I just can't rest thinking that out there, there is a mad man enslaving people and dragons to conquer the world."

"Don't worry son, we'll find a way. After seeing what you and your mother can do, I have no doubt that we will be able to stop Drago and bring peace to us and the dragons for good."

"Thanks Dad." I said as he put his hand on my shoulder.


End file.
